I loved best the moment of crossing over the Roman bridge to the island, as if crossing into a place out of time. I think that the image of the ancient and wooded spot, presided over by the swifts, will stay with me for a long time. Your descriptions of all the many places are almost like a guided tour of your country. Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

The poor corporal has no idea to what danger he has just exposed himself! Please update soon!

Author's Response:

For this chapter I actually went on location, my husband accompanied me. Of course I live in Rome, but it is not that I am an a tourist mode, normally. So we circled the island together while I was thinking where to make this scene happen. I'll update tomorrow, probably.

Porphyria. Nice move. I can only wonder what little bumps you will place in the road, now that our lovers are almost on the home stretch .... ?

Most of all I love the unique voice with which you tell this story. Your prose is flawless in its English, yet unlike any I have read before. Brava!

Author's Response:

My prose .. .this is what they tell me. I can't judge, of course, but I have read so many novels in English (Like 3 books per week, a few in Italian, but most of them in English) that they coached me. My knowlege comes from the written, not the spoken words.

This time out of time is so precious. In which they can come to know each other. Very beautiful and tender treatment of their love.

Author's Response:

Here I had my party, as a Twilight fan totally in love with Edward (and with the beautiful young actor that portraits him so well, albeit I could be his granny, almost). Since as an author I can make the character do my bidding, for a short while I own him ...

It never happened to me before, but then again the inhuman sounds I am capable of emitting were never due to happiness and contentment before. I should be ashamed, but I am not. This woman, my woman, likes me even when I do something that no living man would ever do. How did I get so lucky, why did fate relent?

You have created a marvelous voice for him.

Author's Response:

I do love cats and felines in general. If you have read Eros and Psyche you will have met Cougward .. The feline qualities that manifest themselves in his vampire person are very dear to me ...

I know that if somebody had asked me, when I first had to leave Bella, if I was prepared to give my life for her to be safe, I would have consented with no hesitation.

Nice epiphany

Author's Response:

Actually, it came from a reader's review of The train chapter. Since I start posting when the full story is almost completed, it is seldom that I can use the readers' insights, but this tìme I could make an addition, very grateful to her.

So they are back to the beginning again, learning how to reunite Eros and Psyche once more.

Author's Response:

To develop this part and give to the reunited lovers the time and space to come together again was not easy, given the historical circumstances. If they were on the run in a hostile environment it would not have worked. I remember an evening with friends when I sketched the dilemma and brainstomed with them until I came up with the Dal Camin's house . So Eros and Psyche came into play

I know I love her desperately, nothing has changed, nothing will ever change, but she is not for me anymore. I have lost her forever the moment Damon’s teeth pierced my throat.

Beautiful telling.

“Edward,” she says, “do you have any idea how many men will be going back to their wives after the war and confess the horrible things they had to do? They will have to, if they want to find peace. Many of them will be also physically changed, hideously sometimes…”

...

“If their wives really love them, it will not make a difference, eventually,” she concludes.

Wise, true Bella!

Author's Response:

Here, and in the following chapter I tried have Bella true to her original character. OK she is Italian, a Jew, comes from a high class family and all, but her love for Edward is similar to Bella Swan's. Powerful and capable to steamroll over all obstacles ...

Well he is the nearest thing to a soulless monster he can be. But he is not really like that, he has too much compassion and understanding of other people ... so he will not stay amputated too long ...

What a delightful interlude this is, and what a perfect way to tell a bit of Edward's exploits during the war. Rather like a Greek chorus these reminiscences are.

Author's Response:

This chapter came to be because when I tried to write the activities with Edward with the partisans it came out too long and quite boring. I was blocked for a while and then I had this inspiration, that allowed for me to create some original characters. It was fun.

I love the explanation of Carlisle's 'disfigurement'. That is masterful!

On one hand, I am drawn by his proposal. He is offering me hope of a sort and the company of creatures that have suffered as I am suffering, and yet have not abandoned themselves to despair and have chosen not to be monsters.

Ah! Thank you for pinpointing it so exactly! To be a vampire is a life with much suffering. Heightened senses and intellect cut both ways, and for all their strength and beauty there is great pathos as well. As archetype, I think they are the human condition writ deeply. The task to not give in to despair, and to be greater than the sum of one's parts.

Alas poor Edward! The change is always very sad to me, especially when the person is not prepared. And to be snared by the Volturi. Will he ever see Carlisle again? (And will you eventually tell us what happened to Carlisle's face ... ?)

Author's Response:

You know now that he will and that we will learn about Carlisle's scars ...I wanted to write a terrible change ... Poor Edward ...

You know, I notice that throughout his stay on the farm, Edward was mostly only out and about at night. Already living somewhat the life of a vampire. And now his meeting with fate comes to pass.

I love your prose, and the way that you tell the story. It is economical yet with great feeling. Perhaps like the country people who do not show affection in public ... yet it is there nonetheless.

Author's Response:

I suspect that I am concise because writing in English is tiring, not because I am a new Hemingway. But this had made wonders for the italian translations I do for family and friends. Italian tends to be a baroque language, but translating from English helps to keep my prose dry.

Lovely delicate touch you have for this most delicate topic. I see, of course, the echoes in this of your theory of Eros and Psyche, the body and soul of love.

Before leaving the barn there is a thing I must do. I wash the sheet bearing the proof of her lost virginity, a gift which I did not deserve, and leave it to dry in the barn’s loft, invisible from below.

I found that one moment especially moving.

Write on!

Author's Response:

This is the first story I really wrote lemons for (There is something in Eros and Psiche but not much). At the beginning I was scared, and did not even had the words for them (Then I learned, thanks to some bold smut ladies over there). But never too detailed or to long. I like that the readers add her-his own details.

The virginity sheet was an afterthought, I added it at the last moment. You know that (fortunately) a long time ago in Southern Italy the sheets were exposed to the delight of the wedding guests? Horror. If there was no blood, either the groom killed the bride or, if he was a gentleman and really in love, he cut himself so to smear the sheet ...

It is the way we translate "darling", a lovely word that has no exact translation in Italian. Nobody among my readers caught up with the fact that Bella is a Jew (as my beloved daughter in law), albeit I had put a lot of clues in preceding chapters. It cam as a surprise for many of them...

Thank you. I am not very music oriented (Tune deaf), but Va pensiero throws me every time I listen to it, and I am so angry that has been adopted both by Le Pen in France and here by the North League, both extreme right and xenophobic parties ....

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